Gardening in February

Garden in Israel in Februray might feel like a winter or spring. So we go out and feel… If the plants already blooming we start the spring garden.

Starting the season

In Israel we have two main growing seasons. The Authmn and Winter as the cold and rainy. Spring and Summer are drying and hotting.

The soil in Februrary

The soil is easy to work. The best is to work with it about two days after a rain. Take about 8 litter compost for square meter – spread it on the ground. Now take a tool and break the top most soil – letting the compost get inside the ground.

Watering

The days are getting longer and hotter. It's time to plan the watering. Dripping water lines are saving option for watering. Other options is to use a bucker. I love to reuse water. E.g, water that I washed fruits and vegetables can be used in the garden.

What we grow?

Easiest way to remeber is by the vegetables families.

Gourd

The members of this family likes to group now. When the summers come – they'll fruit.

Cucumber, melan and cucurbita moschata are vines. We can grow then near a fence. At start we'll help them climb on the fence. The cucumber will grow many fruits. The melon and cucurbita moschata will grow one or two.

The Squash is a bush. We'll plan it on about 1 square metter spot. In good conditions it'll grow one fruit a week.

Pumpkin is a big plant. It grows as lines of few meters. Good combination is the mexican triplets – corn – growing up, beans – growing on the corn, and the pumpkin growing to the sides.

Solanaceae

After planting the Gourd memebers we start planting the Solanaceae memebers – Tomatto, Eggplant, Capsicum (hot and sweet) and the Potatto

Chery Tomatto, Capsicum, Eggplant are bushes.
Tomatto can use bigger space and caring – triming or tying to high point to gain more fruits. In good conditions one plant can give few fruits a week.

Pottato we can grow upwords. We put few potatos in the grond. We can choose the ones that started to grow buds. After the grow to height of 50 cm we can cover them. This will allow more blubs to grow more bulbs.

More

Lamiaceae – great perennial plants. If you don't have them in your garden – it's good time to start – Mint, Spearmint, Salvia, Rozmarin, Basil, Lavendar.

Sweet potato – vine. We can grow it near a fence too. It grows the edible part inside the ground like the Potatto.

We can still grow more of the winter plants: green onions, onions, garlic, leek, chives, beets and chard. Carrots, coriander, carapace, parsley and fennel.